The fear is that there are lots of nooks inside those things for gunk to trap in. No one has yet to pony up and risk slicing their chillers to prove exactly how much. Because they work too good.

However, logically, you'd do good to minimalize teh potential for a clog mid chill so, you need to filter hops and hot trub as best as possible. Most, including myself, use a simple paint strainer bag application made into a hop sock.

+1 on some form of strainer bag. After chilling I flush my chiller in both directions and have yet to see anything nasty coming out of it. I usually run some oxyclean & then sanitizer through it just to be sure.

This one will work great but was originally intended for paint sstainer bags. I found a better alternative for the paint stainer bags and they are pictured below. Your plate chiller will never clog with hops (whole or pellets).

I have found a better alternative to the paint strainer bags for Lil' Sparky's hop filter gadget. I use the 150 micron Polyester Multifiliment version of these:

The fear is that there are lots of nooks inside those things for gunk to trap in. No one has yet to pony up and risk slicing their chillers to prove exactly how much. Because they work too good.

However, logically, you'd do good to minimalize teh potential for a clog mid chill so, you need to filter hops and hot trub as best as possible. Most, including myself, use a simple paint strainer bag application made into a hop sock.

Periodically, I follow this up with a heavy dose of caustic cleaner.

GilaminumBeer,

never know what people have.... Got this pic from work.

lots of little spots for stuff to get stuck. "Real" breweries use gasketed plate heat exchangers that can be taken apart and cleaned. Waiting for a "reject" from work to get a hold of one of those.

I'm probably going to end up using a brazed or welded unit when I get my brutus built. I'm not sure if the "scrunched" portion of the cooler got that way when they cut it open or if they are that way. The plates have many strategically laid out ripples to maximize the surface area and cooling capacity. I would be more worried about plugging it up than having bugs in there after cleaning, sanitizing and running hot wort through to heat sanitize it.